Govt to set a limit on the no of cars sold in India?

The government think tank, NITI Aayog has come up with a set of proposals to reduce India’s oil import by half and reduce emissions to conform with the terms of Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

As part of the proposal, it has proposed setting a limit on the number of petrol and diesel vehicles sold in India every year!

While the proposals which include things like bulk procurement of electric vehicles, building standardized batteries for two and three wheelers, lowering taxes and interest rates on electric cars (electric car owners already enjoy state subsidy), lowering of import duty on electric vehicles, increasing subsidies etc. sound mostly alright.

The proposal to limit the number of petrol and diesel vehicle sold each year sounds downright draconian. After all, it ought to be left to an individual to decide, whether they wish to buy a petrol, diesel or electric vehicle, rather than state dictating what he/she should buy.

Considering majority of Indian buyers will buy a vehicle which best suits their pocket, the government should try and ensure innovation in the field of electric vehicles. In order to make them pocket-friendly and attractive enough for the buyer to choose naturally, rather than being forced on.

While these are just proposals and these will be put up online for consultation in the next few weeks. We hope these experts realize, electric vehicles just aren’t there at the moment to fit into every use case scenario and it should be left to the consumers to decide, which technology gets adopted, when.